This year [1988], we have it within our power to take a major step toward a growing global economy and an expanding cycle of prosperity: the historic free trade agreement negotiated between our country and Canada. And I can also tell you that we're determined to expand this concept, south as well as north. Our goal must be a day when the free flow of trade, from the tip of Tierra del Fuego to the Arctic Circle, unites the people of the Western Hemisphere in a bond of mutually beneficial exchange.
--Ronald Reagan
In any case, raising a tariff on a product does not make one a protectionist . . . unless you consider George W. Bush (steel), and Barack Obama (Chinese tires) both protectionists. You don't want to go down that path.